Analyzing the Islamic extremist phenomenon in the United States

In the post-9/11 era, the practice of establishing profiles to help identify potential terrorists has been the subject of significant public controversy. Despite this, building such data has remained a core goal of law enforcement and intelligence officials.

A 2011 report by the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University,Analyzing the Islamic Extremist Phenomenon in the United States: A Study of Recent Activity,categorized the demographics of persons who were suspected of having ties to terrorist activity between January 2009 and April 2011. The researchers primarily used public documents and press reports relating to suspects who were arrested, detained or deported; they cautioned that they did not have access to law enforcement or classified information.

The papers findings include:

Over the study period, 104 persons were suspected of Islamic extremist activity and subjected to law enforcement action in the United States. Some 60% of them were U.S. citizens: 31% were born in the United States; 22% were naturalized citizens; and 7% were dual citizens. Females comprised 8% of suspects overall.

At the time of their arrest, 69 of the 104 individuals studied (66%) had traveled overseas or were attempting to travel overseas to countries with strong terrorist group presences (e.g., Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia).

Thirty-four of the 104 persons were born in the United States; 14 of them had prior criminal histories. Additionally, 76% were younger than 34 years old and 32% were younger than 24 years of age.

Information on religious affiliation was available for 31 of the 34 U.S.-born persons; of these, 14 were born into Muslim families, and 17 were converts to Islam.

A total of 61 persons (approximately 40%) were foreign-born. Some 46% of these had become naturalized citizens (including dual citizens), 15% were permanent resident aliens and 8% entered the United States on visas. Data on age existed for 58 of these foreign-born persons; of these, approximately 81% were 34 years old or younger and 46% were 24 years old or younger.

Of the 104 persons studied, 63% had ties to Al Qaeda or its affiliates.

The papers authors concluded that no one, all-encompassing profile can be made of the individuals, and that the data call for the examination of subgroups and the safeguarding against the development of incorrect stereotypes that might hamper threat detection.Tags: security, terrorism, religionWriter:Christopher Olver|February 6, 2012

- See more at: http://journalistsresource.org/studies/government/criminal-justice/islamic-extremist-phenomenon-united-states#sthash.MsDxsRP0.dpufTerror arrests reach record level, says Metropolitan Police

14 May 2015Terror-related arrests in England, Wales and Scotland reached record levels last year, when 338 people were held, Scotland Yard has said.More than half of those arrests were related to Syria, Met Police assistant commissioner Mark Rowley said.

Police said more than 700 potential terror suspects are now thought to have travelled to Syria.

About half of those people - said to be of "significant concern" - are believed to have since returned to the UK.

The total number of terror-related arrests was up from 254 in 2013/14 - an increase of about a third.

Of the latest arrests, 56 related to suspects under the age 20 - a figure that police say represents "an emerging trend".

Suspects were arrested for offences ranging from fundraising for extremist causes to plotting terrorist attacks.

Analysis

By BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw

Counter-terrorism police have never been as busy as this.

Since the Syrian conflict started there has been a clear upward trend in police arrests, with increasing numbers of women and young people among those detained.

The figures were released by Scotland Yard to illustrate the extent of the threat - and the challenge facing police at a time when their intelligence capability is said to be diminishing.

Senior officers claim that changes in technology - more encryption, more use of social media, more apps - are leading to "blind spots", which terrorists are able to exploit - partly because the law hasn't kept up and also because communications providers won't give police access to the data.

So, the police argue, the need for updated powers - the so-called "snoopers' charter" - has never been stronger.

The new government has been listening - and signalled there will be a Bill - but others may still need convincing, despite the latest statistics.

Some 11% of the arrests related to female suspects. More than 100 people are awaiting trial for terrorism-related charges.

Mr Rowley, the national police lead on counter-terrorism, said suspects who had gone to Syria, where Islamist extremist group Islamic State controls a swathe of territory, were "of significant concern to us and the security services".

"They are not aid workers or visiting relatives - they are people of real concern that they are getting involved in fighting or are supportive of it. They are potential terrorist suspects," he said.

Asked about the number who have returned to the UK, he said: "It is a fairly even balance between those still out there and those who have come back."

Tracking Britain's jihadistsA BBC investigation has documentedthe Britons known to have died in Syria and Iraq, those who have been convicted of offences relating to the conflict there and those believed to be living in territory controlled by Islamic State.

It includes the stories of:

36 who are reported to have died

13 who have been convicted by British courts

and many others who we have established are alive and active in Syria or Iraq.

'Violent attacks'

The type of terrorist threat to the UK has been "complex" and ranges from "lone actors intent on carrying out crude and violent attacks to sophisticated networks set on completing ambitious and coordinated plots", Mr Rowley said.

Islamic State and other militant groups have - through online "propaganda" - been trying to "provoke individuals in the UK to carry out violent attacks here".

"There is no doubt of the horrific nature of the offences being committed overseas. The influence of those who wish to bring similar violence to the streets of the UK has been an increasing threat here," Mr Rowley added.

Most of the Britons who have travelled to Syria since the conflict there started are thought to have volunteered as fighters for Islamic State, police have said previously.

The United Nations estimates that more than 25,000 foreign fighters, from 100 different nations, have joined militant groups in Syria.Boko Haram: Nigeria and West African neighbours join forces in fight against terrorist groupPostedabout 4 hours agoNigeria and its neighbours have agreed to set up a joint military force to counter the threat posed by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram.The decision came after talks in Abuja between the heads of state of Niger, Cameroon, Chad, Benin and Nigeria's newly-elected president, Muhammadu Buhari.

A final communique said the regional force would be led by a Nigerian commander and based in the Chad capital, Ndjamena.

Chad and Cameroon have deputy commander and chief of staff posts in the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF).

Operations are expected to begin on July 30.

Mr Buhari has said changing the force's leadership would hamper "the military capacity to sustain the push against the insurgents".

The MNJTF will replace an existing ad hoc coalition of Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon, which has claimed a series of successes against Boko Haram since February.

Boko Haram has killed thousands and displaced 1.5 million people in their six-year fight to establish an Islamic state in north-eastern Nigeria.

Squashing the insurgency was one of Mr Buhari's main campaign promises, in contrast to his predecessor Goodluck Jonathan, who was accused of inaction in tackling the Islamist extremist group.'Terrorism has no frontiers'Mr Buhari, who was inaugurated two weeks ago, has moved the Nigerian army's command centre from Abuja to Maiduguri, in the rebels' north-eastern stronghold.

He told the summit on Thursday there was a need to view the insurgency as part of the "global war against terror"."Terrorism has no frontiers and they must, because of the great implication for regional and global peace and security, be defeated," the former military ruler said.

Last weekend, he appealed to world leaders at theG7 summit in Germanyfor more help in combating extremism and visited Chad and Niger to push for longer-term cooperation on security threats.

The MNJTF was first agreed in May last year, a month after Boko Haram shocked the world by kidnapping more than 200 schoolgirls in Nigeria.

It was supposed to be operational in November 2014 but was dogged by wrangling between Anglophone Nigeria and its francophone neighbours, whom it has long viewed with suspicion.

Reviving the force was brought to the fore in January, as Boko Haram hit north-east Nigeria almost daily and began to eye territorial gains in border regions of Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

Nigeria has promised $100 million for the "smooth take-off" of the MNJTF, Mr Buhari said on Thursday, but added that longer-term funding was still a "major issue".

The partners called for financial backing from the African Union for "operations, logistics and general mission support" and asked the UN Security Council for its backing for the force.AFP/ReutersWhat does this historic decision mean?WASHINGTON The US State Departments formally removed Cuba from its official list of state sponsors of terrorism. Heres what you need to know about Obamas lastest move to fully restore relations.What exactly is a state sponsor of terrorism?The designation was formulated by US authorities in 1979 with an aim to punish whole regimes suspected of involvement in terrorist activities. The United States maintains a separate and far longer list of foreign terrorist organizations. In both cases, a spot on the list means sanctions, bans on exports and arms sales, and other punitive measures aimed at freezing business with these supposed terrorist actors.Why was Cuba on the list?Before Obamas move, there were four listed state sponsors of terrorism: Cuba, Iran, Syria and Sudan. Cuba had been on the list since 1982. The argument used to put it there largely centred on the Castro regime giving sanctuary to a number of fugitives implicated in terrorist acts. These included militant Basque separatists from Spain and a number of US citizens wanted for acts of political violence.

The most high-profile fugitive is Joanne Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur. A member of the Black Liberation Army, she is wanted in the killing of a New Jersey police officer in 1973 and is suspected to be in Cuba. Its believed that, since at least 1991, Cuba has provided no training or armed assistance to leftist guerrilla groups in Latin America.And what about the other countries on the list?Iran deemed by the US in 2011 to be an active state sponsor of terrorism was first designated as one in 1984, the year after a suicide bombing of a US Marines barracks in Beirut by a suspected member of Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy. Syria got on the list the same year that the list was created, largely for Damascus role in fuelling the sectarian conflict in Lebanon, and its continuing support for Palestinian militant groups carrying out attacks in Israel. Sudan was designated as a state sponsor in 1993 after it emerged that Khartoum was harbouring militants from a slate of terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda.Arent there other countries that do far worse?Indeed, yes, some say there are. Its argued that elements within the Pakistani state, for example, have tacitly enabled various militant, terrorist groups ranging from the Afghan Taliban to al-Qaeda to terrorist groups that focus their attacks on India. Al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden was discovered living in mysterious circumstances in a leafy town not far from Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.

Yet theres never been much of a possibility of forcing this designation on Pakistan, a long-standing US ally whose government regularly denounces terrorism and is in the midst of a bloody, draining counterinsurgency in the countrys tribal areas along the Afghan border.So, its a question of politics?Pretty much. The designation is a provocative, zero-sum gesture that gives the US little diplomatic flexibility and reflects, instead, the politics of an earlier Cold War era when US policy was focused more on state adversaries rather than on non-state actors.

The list of nations removed from the list includes Iraq, freed of the status after the US invasion in 2003; Libya, removed in 2006 after the Gadhafi regime stepped up counterterrorism cooperation and abandoned its suspected WMD programme; and even North Korea, a move made in 2008 after supposed commitments regarding the verification of that countrys clandestine nuclear programme.

Another country no longer on the list? South Yemen a nation that no longer exists but that was viewed in 1970s and 1980s by the US as a dangerous Soviet proxy. The question nowadays is less whether states are actively sponsoring terror than whether they are passively doing so.Because of this complexity, the answer to the problem does not lie only in updating the State Departments state sponsorship list to reflect current relationships swapping out Cuba for Venezuela, say, or replacing North Korea with Pakistan, writes Middle East scholar Daniel L. Byman in a 2008 policy paper for the Brookings Institution.

Byman, instead, proposes the creation of a list of passive sponsors and their activities in an attempt to name and shame them into better behaviour.

Herald with The Washington PostFrom the section

HYPERLINK "http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-06/what-is-nigeria27s-boko-haram3f/3637796" \n _selfWhat is Boko Haram?

HYPERLINK "http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-06/what-is-nigeria27s-boko-haram3f/3637796" \n _self

Boko Haram, which means "Western education is sinful", is loosely modelled on the Taliban movement in Afghanistan.

The group considers all who do not follow its strict ideology as infidels, whether they are Christian or Muslim.

It demands the adoption of Sharia law in all of Nigeria.

HYPERLINK "http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-06/what-is-nigeria27s-boko-haram3f/3637796" \n _selfRead more